Month: August 2015

I Watched DOTA2’s TI5 Grand Finals Live In A Movie Theater

When Fathom Events announced that they had partnered with Valve to bring this year’s International Grand Finals live into select movie theaters, my girlfriend immediately decided we were going. My girlfriend, who hates mobas almost as much as she hates movie theaters mind you, knew just what it meant to be able to take part in what could be a once in a lifetime experience. Thankfully our city of residence happened to have a theater hosting the event. There was very little excuse for us to miss the world’s largest E-Sports event being the first such tournament to be live broadcasted on the big screen. As gamers, we knew what this meant to our beloved community. Suddenly I didn’t feel any amount of disrepute for my hobby, I was proud of it. I walked boastfully and confidently into the theater to have my ticket scanned for the event. My excitement was uplifted moments before we left for the theater when Evil Geniuses defeated LGD in the Semi-Finals, meaning the team I had been rooting for would be playing for the title against the Wild Card Team who also fought their way up to the top. This was going to be an amazing show.

cdec_eg

 

We arrived to a completely empty theater a few minutes before the scheduled start of the event. We were ecstatic to have a whole theater to ourselves! But we also weren't disappointed when 4 other people showed up to witness the start of the last five matches of TI5. So now we had other people to scream and shout at the screen with as we rooted for the American team to defeat China’s Wild Card team, CDEC.

  • 0808151348b
  • 0808151351d

And holy shit, the teams came out swinging. The first two matches where action packed kill fests, you would think you were watching an all star match it was so crazy. EG took the first game by a country mile, and CDEC retaliated heavily in game two. And game three, jesus if you guys missed it go watch this match. I don’t think I’ve watched a more tense match of Dota. Not as action packed, but each team kept feeling out their opponents, never fully engaging, all as CDEC slowly gained a huge gold advantage around the 40 minute mark, only to have EG make a huge comeback off of a counter gank, putting them only one victory away from becoming TI5 Champions. My hype couldn’t have been higher, I had been enjoying popcorn and a banana flavored ICEE (the only good thing about a minions movie existing) while watching an E-Sports event on a Movie Theater screen, what more could this nerd need? I know what I wanted, I wanted to see EG take home the Aegis. And I wanted them to do it in another exciting match, with epic team fights and a great hero line up.

GrandFinalFP
lineup

Well I couldn’t have asked for a better hero line up for this match. We weren’t the only ones excited, with every kill all of us in the theater where bursting with excited yelling and “Ohh Shits!” throughout the entire match. EG showed their confident and experienced tactics as the superior Dota team right from the start, with Naga Siren being the unsung Hero of the match keeping all the lanes healthy for Radiant. But the deciding moment of the match came when CDEC tried to sneak a Roshan from under EG’s nose, and were brutally punished for it.Any chance of the match being anyone's game had been completely squandered at that point, as EG took the victory (and our breath)shortly after.

  • aegis
  • champs
  • em_excite
  • wow

The experience in that giant room was unreal, I might as well have been a spectator in the Key Arena itself, and we couldn’t wait to hear the thoughts of both teams before the closing ceremony. We got to hear from a humble and surprised EG, but we spent no time with the 2nd place finalists who fought their way into the International all the way to the grand finals. This was only further frustrated by a very out of place closing performance by DeadMau5, who played very ominous music as the camera quickly zoomed in and out of a close up shot of the DJ. It was one of the most out of place things I have ever scene. It reminded me of being at an amazing epic Metal concert, only to have the venue play Nickleback after the show in order to get us out of the building quickly (which always worked very well). And that’s kind of what it felt like here. But I don’t think anyone is going to let an out of place DJ performance ruin the memories of that incredible series of games. Nor will I ever forget witnessing Gaming's largest tournament live on the big screen.

Playing Sports Games On Hard Out Of Love

August is here and you can already smell it in the air: NFL season is close. Another Madden will come out and everyone will get their football fix. I know EA gets a lot of hate for having a monopoly on NFL games, and I must say the 2K series was my favorite back in the PS2 era, but they made a Madden so good that I decided to give it a try.

I'm talking about Madden 09 for the Wii. It was announced that you would be able to design your own plays from the skirmish line with the help of the wii remote. It worked pretty well and it added a lot of depth to the game. Now, putting aside how good it was made, I didn't know what I was getting into when I bought it.

miami-bags

I'm a Miami Dolphins fan. I'm used to not having good seasons. What I didn't think at the moment of buying the game was that the teams were ranked by their previous season performance, and that was definitely a season I'd like to forget. The Dolphins went 1 - 15 in the 2007 season. The first time I chose the team I was reminded of that and I thought to myself: what have I done?

What I enjoy the most of NFL games is playing a complete season and winning the Super Bowl. This time around, being the worst team of the last season, every game was an uphill battle. Even the Oakland Raiders seemed almighty against my puny team. It took me a lot of tries to beat the archenemy, the Patriots, but I would not be defeated by them... not by them. Taking the Dolphins to the big game and winning it was hard as hell, but it was out of love.

After Madden 09 left me scarred like that I haven't bought any other NFL game. Next time I'll wait until the Dolphins have a winning season to buy one. It will probably be in the year 20XX. Thinking about it, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to buy one for this generation yet. Last Madden's PC game was released in 07 and the only current console I own is a Wii U. EA dismissed Nintendo's console this generation and they only released Madden 13 on it.

I wish 2K sports were allowed to fill the holes that EA is leaving open. I'd gladly buy an NFL 2k16 for the PC or Wii U. I recall 2K's ESPN presentation was outstanding. It had intros, player highlights, half-time reports and spot on comments. And to sweeten the deal last season the Dolphins went 8 - 8 so it wouldn't be that hard this time around. A man can dream.

New Steam Store Releases: Fairy Fencer F

Fairy Fencer F is the stand-out title on the Steam Store this week. A previously PlayStation-only release, FFF is a 2014 RPG from Japaneses developer Compile Heart. Compile Heart is probably best known as the co-creator of the Hyperdimension Neptunia games. Fairy Fencer F actually uses a modified version of that series battle system.

Also out this week, a PixelJunk action strategy game about an interplanetary soup company, a kind of scrolling puzzle game where you have to maneuver two orbiting spheres around a constant stream of obstacles, and a third-person exploration game in which you must get your wounded brother to safety whilst traversing a flooded city. Cross swords with some fairies, then proceed further to see more of this week's new releases. Read more

Blizzard at Gamescom: The big reveal!

 

Blizzard Entertainment announced its next expansion for World of Warcraft at Gamescom, and it left me a bit not necessarily underwhelmed but close to it.

World of Warcraft: Legion follows the current story that Warlords of Draenor started by having the ever hated Gul'dan unleash the 'Burning Legion' or some really bad demon guys who have been around well, forever.

To make a long story short, for multiple expansions, as well as the original game 'Warcraft' was mostly dedicated to the Burning Legion trying to invade and take over the world. This legion was created by the titan Sargeras, who like most of the big characters in the Warcraft universe started off essentially good, but overtime turned out to be pretty bad. *Cough*Neltharion*Cough*

This expansion follows suit by continuing the fight against the hordes of armies that Sargeras controls.With the help of some friends new and old we can overcome any obstacle sent at us. But what does this expansion really bring for us?

1. We get a new 'Hero Class'!

Much like Death Knights in Wrath of the Lich King, Legion brings us the Demon Hunter. No, not Diablo's style demon hunter, the Illidan Stormrage type.

Yeah, that guy, The Betrayer, the one who carried the ever famous war-glaives.

Demon Hunters, who have long been locked away in the Vault of the Wardens are called upon to help fight against the Legion. The class itself has multiple different customizations when being created, and since they are a Hero Class they will start at a very high level to allow players to level with their friends. This also allows for people to hit speed up to level cap and do raids and dungeons right away.

There will be two specs for this class.

Vengence - The Tank Spec

Havoc - DPS Spec

Not all the skills have been released for this class, but more information will be revealed later.

2. The broken Isles

10,000 years before The Sundering an unknown elven land was sitting off into the distance, when the land broke it forged the broken isles which holds the tomb of Sargeras. With the help of Gul'dan the Broken Isles is turned into the biggest war zone that has ever come to Azeroth.

Each zone has it's own major story line, and is discussed here in Blizzards Gamescon presentation.

3. Ancient Weapons

These are class specific weapons that each player has a chance to get.

Maw of the Damned is the Death Knight specific weapons and it doesn't end there!

The AshBringer, this weapon has been around since WoW's original release. Players know this weapon, they fought for this weapon, and they  did whatever they could to get it before it was taken out of the game.

Now each one of these weapons has customizations, meaning, they can be enchanted with runes to upgrade the damage or other specs of the weapon, and also it can have other visual depictions of the same weapon.

4, Level Cap of 110

As of right now the current level cap is 100. Pretty self explanatory, you get an expansion, you level and then start farming dungeons.

5. New Dungeons and Raids

Tons of new dungeons, according to the conference the devs are working on having a relatively large number of dungeons compared to the last expansions so the players will have more to do. This includes level up dungeons as well as level cap dungeons.

So far two Raids have been announced, the first being The Emerald Nightmare, and the second Suramar Palace where the final boss will definitely be Gul'dan.

6. Class-specific Order Halls and followers

This one is a bit on the fence, I don't want to say time management style, but at the same time I want to say time management. Until more details surface about what is actually done with your followers I'm going to leave it at this.

  • You lead the Class Order.
  • Order Halls are a base of operations for your class. You share them with other players of your class. Only members of your class can enter this area, similar to the Death Knight starting area.
  • Halls will be located in thematically appropriate areas.
  • Shamans in a cave near the Maelstrom.
  • Paladins will be under Light's Hope Chapel.
  • Warlocks will be on a Legion Portal World.
  • You get special quests and work on your Artifact weapon here.
  • Your Hall has Champions, an evolution of the followers. This time around you aren't raising an army, but a small group. Some will be established characters. There will be more integration with the world. They won't do things instead of you, but help you to accomplish things. They discover an area for you to investigate. You work alongside them and with them rather than sending them out on missions. (mmo-champion.com summary)

7. Revamped PvP progression system

  • Prestige Ranks - You can reset your honor level and do it again for cosmetic rewards. This is extra rewards for players that do a lot of PvP.

8. Improved transmogrification system (More Information coming later)

9. Improved social features (More Information coming later)

If you would like to see a full transcript visit here.

( THE FOLLOWING IS AN OPINION)

I feeling like there somethings missing from this expac and I can't quite put a finger on it. I mean, according to lore, Blizzard is actually doing okay, though some of the things like Archmage Khadgar having Mediv's legendary staff Atiesh, and having yet to be explained still bother me apparently. For everyone else, I've seen nothing but complaints about reusing old models and Blizzard getting lazier as time goes on. Well honestly, in my opinion, what other game has lasted this long? Maybe the guys working are finally starting to realize that even with each expansion they are losing more of a customer base then they wanted to.

Maybe this is just a precaution, yes they are still producing content, but instead of being such an attention getter to a new crowd their trying to keep who still believe in the game interested and active. No matter what they have a fan base and for the guys to come out and say, "We're still doing what we love, but we had to make a few changes." Might be just breathe of fresh air to everybody.

As for me, I'm probably still going to pick of the Collector's Edition like I have done with every since Blizzard game, but it seems like I might not be anywhere as serious about raiding or instancing like I have in the past, and surely I can see myself taking a hiatus for awhile until I grow bored and six months later activate my account again.

Until more details come out I'm outta here.

All photos were taken from blizzgc.com an external link of Battle.net.

~Tisnight

WRUP: We Are Not Legion Edition

Did you catch all that news about the new World of Warcraft expansion? Did it feel to you like twelve year old Metzen was running rings around forty+ year old Metzen saying “YOUR GAME NEEDS MORE COOL THINGS?!” No? That was just me? Oh well. Maybe you’re going to play World of Warcraft this weekend, who knows? But this is what Twinstiq is up to: Read more

New Nintendo eShop Releases: Golden Sun: The Lost Age

Nintendo has dropped a pair of classic Game Boy Advance titles onto the Wii U Virtual Console this week. First and foremost is Golden Sun: The Lost Age, the sequel and second act to the highly acclaimed 2001 RPG Golden Sun. The Lost Age is an excellent game in its own right and well worth it if you enjoyed the first entry.

Next up is Onimusha Tactics. Out of the same Onimusha series that Capcom made popular on the PlayStation 2 came this somewhat obscure Game Boy Advance tactical RPG. Although not sharing much in the way of a plot connection to the other games, it does feature a similar storyline and definitely feels like an Onimusha game.

Besides those two games, also out this week is a 3DS remake of Etrian Odyssey 2, and an interesting-looking puzzle game for the Wii U. Get your virtual Game Boy fired up, then proceed further to view this list of new releases.

Read more

New PlayStation Store Releases: Galak-Z

I had to skip the New PlayStation Store Releases update last week due to the big site switch-over. So, this week I will be combining them all into one super update. The game I am most interested in from the last fortnight would probably have to be Galak-Z. Brought to you by 17-BIT (the creators of Skulls of the Shogun), Galak-Z is a punishing, procedurally generated space shooter with an '80s anime aesthetic. How freaking cool does that sound?!

Also out this/last week, Legend of Kay is making the rounds, along with N++, and a Cross Buy game about a speeding box. Take a week off and then lose your shit over something awesome-sounding, then proceed further to see more new releases.

Read more

As a sort of bad joke, I picked one game that was seminal to me - King's Quest I and repeated it's box art four times as my "four games."

Opinion: #4favouritegames

greywolfe

Words by Greywolfe

I know, I know.  I’m meant to be opining on Youtube about how games have made their way to the platform and how that’s a problem because, really, we shouldn’t be watching people play video games.

But then, over the weekend, I got tagged in a Twitter game and ever since that fateful Friday, I’ve been thinking about my choices.  Not that I regret them, more that I think that my “favourites” might change, given the day of the week, the way the wind is blowing and the tea I’m drinking.

But humour me!  I’ll walk you through what I was thinking when I picked these four games and then you can feel free to play along in the comments section below. Read more